Farewell to Summer???

Last night Lauren and I went with Brian, Diane, Sammie and Jacob to a Farewell to Summer celebration. I am not sure that summer is really coming to an end anytime soon, it was about 105 degrees today, but we can hope. It usually does not cool off until late October.

When I lived in Chicago I remembered when it was April and May and it was still cold and it felt like it would never warm up. That is how summer is here in Phoenix. You can deal with the heat for 6 or 7 months but when it is September and October and it is still so hot it just gets really old. I am just hoping for a early fall.

Growing up

It just amazes me how fast she is growing up. I just wish I could slow it down just a bit.

These pictures were taken at a splash park this weekend.

Cousin Fun

Lauren is a very lucky little girl. She has a bunch of cousins that love her so much. She also loves them a ton This weekend she got to spend time with all of them (that live in AZ). She spent some time with Sammie and Jacob and then she got to go and spend time with Elaine, Grant and Blaire. For Lauren it was a perfect day.

We miss the cousins in CA. We wish we could spend more time with them. I didn't get any pictures of Lauren and Sammie. But it was a good day with no fighting!!

Labor Day Weekend

Waiting for the train

The train is here.

Water and Sand is always fun. I am not sure she got the lesson they were trying to teach.

Listening to sounds

Laying on a bed of nails. She said it felt funny.

Time to go home.

A few months ago Phoenix opened the long awaited light rail system. Lauren had seen the trains a few times and asked if we could ride the train sometime. Since we didn't have anything planned for weekend I thought it would be fun to try out the new train.

We took the train downtown and went to the Science Center. Lauren and I agreed that the light rail train is a much smoother ride then the El in Chicago. We had a fun day.

Bowling Party

Lauren's class had a welcome to first grade bowling party. It was fun to meet her new classmates and their parents. Lauren had a great time bowling and hanging out with her friends.

Birthday Party Fun

Last weekend Lauren went to a birthday party for one of her friends. The party was at a kids salon and it was a "rock party" theme. The girls got their hair done in a rock star style. They also got their nails painted and they had a little make-up applied.

Lauren was a bit worried about her hair and so I talked to the ladies about the problem and they said that they would work around it. I think they did a great job. I looked at these pictures later and I am so amazed at how fast she is growing up. I think she had a great time being a rock star.

Hair Update

Interesting hairstyle.

The bald spot is now gone!!

Oh, it has been an interesting journey.

I have not done a hair update in a long time I figure it is time. It has now been 32 weeks or about 8 months since the accident. The bald spot is now completely covered and the hair is growing in nice and thick. The nice thing now is that there is no worry about showing any bald spot. But as I have learned there are always new challenges in this journey. We now are faced with a new problem, hair sticking up.

We still have to do the comb over and at the beginning of the day it looks fine but by the time I pick Lauren up after work the top of her head is very interesting. She has a bunch of hair sticking straight up. The hair is about 1 to 2 inches long and comes through the comb over. It is strange looking. It looks like she has a mullet. She has this short hair on top and then long in the back. This is especially true when we have the rest of the hair is pulled back in a ponytail.

I figure we have a few more months until the new hair is long enough to put in the side ponytail we use in the comb over. I am hoping by Christmas we will be able to do that. (Almost a year after the accident.) Then maybe her Christmas pictures will look ok. Her 6 year old pictures are a bit interesting but it is a good representation of what she was at 6 years old.

I am really hoping that by next summer the hair will be long enough that when she has a ponytail it can include the hair on top in it also. We are planning to go to Disneyworld next summer and I know it will be hot and humid. It would be nice if I can put all her hair in a ponytail and not have to do the comb over first. Time will tell.

This summer Lauren begged me to let her cut about 5 inches off her hair. At first I didn’t want to do it but then I realized that in the next few years we are going to have to do some cutting and we might as well start it now. She now misses her longer hair but was nice to trim it up.